Today I received the news of the passing of Gale Bond, Knight of Baha'u'llah for the Canadian Arctic. Gale and her late husband Jameson (Jamie) were dearly loved 'extended family' members for our family, from the days that my father and Jamie were Bahá'í students together in the 1950s at the University of Toronto, until the present when we spoke with Gale by phone, last week, and reminisced with her about many wonderful times together.

Some of you know that I have a book forthcoming (date yet to be determined) in which stories of Bahá'í elders are gathered, giving a glimpse of people who have embraced the Bahá'í teachings from the turn of the last century to the turn of this one. Gale sent me a wonderful story of her life as a Bahá'í, and her life with Jamie. It is copyrighted but I offer you here a sneak preview: a short excerpt of Gale Bond's story, in her voice, of her life of service.

Safe journey, dearest Gale.

In Memoriam: Kathleen Gale Bond

excerpted from The Bright Glass of the Heart: Elder Voices on Faith,
forthcoming, edited and compiled by Heather Cardin

…one Sunday afternoon at yet another fireside, I heard myself ask, "How does one become a Bahá'í?" All at once I was whisked into the hallway and asked if I had read The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. "No," I said. We read a few paragraphs and someone asked me if I believed and accepted the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. I did not understand everything they were talking about but from that moment I was accepted as a declared Bahá'í. The date was November l6, 1949. … Sometime towards the end of December the Bahá'ís held a social evening and dance at the tennis club. Lloyd Gardner was the Master of Ceremonies. Towards midnight two people came in and, nodding towards one of them, I said to a friend, "I bet that's Jamie Bond." He danced with everyone except me. Lily Ann invited Jamie to dinner the night of the Feast in January. This was really the first time I met him. I had a ticket for a concert that night at Massey Hall featuring the German soprano Erna Sack. Because I was a new Bahá’í and didn’t really understand the importance of attending the Feast, I excused myself after dinner and went to the concert. …

We were married in Montreal on July 14, 1953, at the Maxwell home and the very next day we left on our honeymoon on the icebreaker "D'Iberville", which took us to our new pioneering post in Arctic Bay, at the northern tip of Baffin Island. Jamie had secured a job with the Department of Transport at the weather station there and, after much negotiation with his employers, I was allowed to go with him, hired as the cook. Before I knew whether or not I would be hired, I had lunch with Mr. George Spendlove in Toronto and he asked me if I knew how to cook. When I told him I only knew how to do simple things, he said, “Don’t worry. I will give you Fanny Farmer’s Cookbook, and you place your whole trust in Bahá’u’lláh. He will look after you and protect you.” This went straight to my heart and, from that moment on, the doors were opened. I was hired, the arrangements were made and I gave no thought to the hardships to come.

Our trip north took two months. We traveled down the Saint Laurence River, then along the coast of Newfoundland – that’s when the temperature began to drop, and we saw our first iceberg. Before long icebergs became common sights.

In late August the ship stopped briefly at Buchanan Bay on Ellesmere Island. As it was the day of the Feast of Names, Jamie and I asked the Captain for permission to go ashore. We wanted to celebrate the Feast on land, to set foot on this territory in the name of the Cause. The Captain refused us permission. However, we were determined. So at 4:00 a.m., when everyone else was asleep, we climbed over the side of the ship and down the pilot’s ladder (the Jacob’s ladder, it was called) onto a landing barge and went ashore. We walked inland about a mile, (it was daylight of course, because that far north the sun doesn’t actually set in the summer) and beside a beautiful glacial stream we celebrated the Feast. We also picked some Arctic poppies there. These we enclosed in a letter (sent by aircraft from our next stop, the settlement of Resolute Bay) to Ruhiyyih Khánum, telling her that the Feast had been celebrated less than 700 miles from the North Pole!... Throughout the years following our Arctic Pioneering, I also made many teaching trips to Hungary. The first one was in 1974, taken at Jamie’s urging. He felt that, since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had placed considerable importance on that country, visiting it Himself, and that since I was of Hungarian descent, I could be of service there. ...

In all, I made fifteen teaching trips to Hungary. When I first went, there were hardly any Bahá’ís, only a few Persian students pioneering there. Gradually the community grew, conditions changed, Local Spiritual Assemblies formed, and in 1992 I was able to witness the election of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Hungary. I was also present at the formation of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Romania. My last trip to Hungary was in 1998, which was also the year of my last Pilgrimage. Many times when I traveled to Hungary I included a three-day Pilgrimage in Haifa.

We returned to Canada from New Zealand in 1988 and have enjoyed our years here on Vancouver Island, where we have been privileged to assist in the development of Maxwell International Bahá’í School. We have spent our time here encouraging the friends and trying to keep them aware of the great destiny of the Canadian Bahá’í community.

On June 1st, 2007, my beloved husband ascended to the ‘Abhá Kingdom. I miss him very, very much, but I am sure that he is always looking after me from the next world and that, freed from the physical constraints of age and illness, he is now even more occupied with encouraging the friends and inspiring their teaching work.

We have just returned from a trip to Saskatoon and area. Somehow, for some reason, that province is home: there's a comfort level there for Bernie and me that we can't quite explain but that visits us as soon as we cross the border. Maybe it's because we were both so young when we lived there, married there, had one of our children there, made some of our closest friends there. There's such a beauty there, too, when you have eyes to see it. It's not the prettiest time of year, right now, with the snow melting and the detritus of winter emerging: mud and clean up time, followed by dust. Yet we enjoyed stopping in some of the small towns; we are looking for a home there, and find smaller venues more and more appealing.

We stayed with my sister and some of her family, and many of our relatives joined us; Grandma & Grandpa, two more of our sisters, several nieces and nephews, plus our son came from Regina to spend time with us (and I gave him the worst haircut I have done on anybody, ever; I'll never live this one down.) Normally I'm not too bad at haircuts, at least for our son, but the scissors slipped (really, they did) and I took a chunk out. The less said about that, the better. Anyway, we had the chance to visit with some good friends, go out for lunch and dinner and a wonderful brunch (thanks, Rita and Wilf), and go to book stores. One book I recommend, still reading but liking it very much, is Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona's Narrative Medicine. I also got a chance to go twice to my most amazing massage therapist, who is a true healer and uses myofascial massage (and a lot of strength and patience) to take very good care of his patients.

We very much enjoyed the Bahá'í Feast the night before we left. My sister created a short devotional program where she took the writing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, during which the chant is raised "Glad Tidings, Glad Tidings" and had the children speak the refrain "Glad Tidings" while distributing flowers to all at the Feast. Two women played drums to announce each "Glad Tidings" and she (my sister) read these verses of joy. After this, my father read a passage about the significance of the Feast (from a marvelous booklet my mother has prepared for Feasts and Holy Days). There were several other readers, and I closed by singing the Healing Prayer, which was directed to several people (both by me and by the gathered friends saying their names aloud) but especially, in my case, to one of my editors at Bahá'í Publishing who is healing from cancer.

The consultative portion of the Feast was longer but really inspiring: one of the youth, recently returned from service in the Holy Land, shared his passion for the writing "These Perspicuous Verses," which Bahá'ís have been enjoined to memorize, and another youth shared an account of going with the Wildfire dance group to the report north of Canada. I was also pleased, during the social portion of the Feast, to chat with a friend who is also a remarkable artist, Lorenzo Dupuis. He currently has a show on with Art Placement; google to see his fascinating people studies. He is also a marvelous landscape artist and Francophone teacher, whose children are from Vietnam and China, respectively, and are adorable.

Well, that is a rather longer description of the Feast than I had intended to share, but it was truly a lovely experience.

The drive each way is a full day, and both ways we had passengers so enjoyed spending time with William and Angelica en route, and Julie and Sarah coming home.

Now I have to mark essays and tests from before the break, and prepare to teach poetry, Shakespeare, and the short story before exam time rolls around in June. At least the days are lighter and lighter, warmer and warmer, and this evening the family is gathering for Easter turkey.

As always, much to be grateful for.